Obama urges Israeli push for peace

Obama appealed directly on Thursday to the Israeli people to put themselves in the shoes of stateless Palestinians and recognise that Jewish settlement activity in occupied territory hurts prospects for peace.
Photo: Reuters

by
MARK LANDLER

President Obama, appealing to very disparate audiences to solve one of the world’s thorniest problems, moved closer on Thursday to the Israeli government’s position on resuming long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, even as he passionately implored young Israelis to get ahead of their own leaders in the push for peace.

Addressing an enthusiastic crowd of more than 2,000, Mr. Obama offered a fervent, unsparing case for why a peace agreement was both morally just and in Israel’s self-interest. Younger Israelis, Mr. Obama said, should empathize with their Palestinian neighbors living under occupation — or, as he put it, “look at the world through their eyes."

Hours earlier, visiting the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Mr. Obama urged the Palestinians to return to the bargaining table even if Israel did not meet their condition of halting construction of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories — a demand he, too, made at the start of his first term, but which had only a temporary, partial impact.

It was a striking mix of big-stage inspiration and closed-door compromise: with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Obama was laboring to nudge two stubborn adversaries; with a younger generation, he was going over the two men’s heads, seeking to stir popular enthusiasm for his vision of peace.

Past and Future

Yet it also attested to the intractable nature of Middle East peacemaking over the past decade. By not renewing his demand that Israel halt settlement construction to get a new round of talks started, Mr. Obama was, in effect, conceding that years of careful study about how to nudge the peace process forward had failed to produce tangible results.

“Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this: political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do," Mr. Obama said, in tones reminiscent of his own political campaigns at home. “You must create the change that you want to see."

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Standing before a blue-and-white banner emblazoned with the emblem of the Israeli state — a menorah flanked by olive branches — Mr. Obama spoke of the past and the future, from the biblical story of Exodus and from Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, to Israel’s reputation as a high-tech incubator with a mania for social media.

“Israel," he said to prolonged applause, “is rooted not just in history and tradition, but also in a simple and profound idea: the idea that people deserve to be free in a land of their own."

Mr. Obama’s warm reception, after a polite but formal welcome by Mr. Netanyahu, recalled a visit by the Israeli prime minister to Washington in May 2011. Mr. Netanyahu, after rebuffing a peace proposal by Mr. Obama, spoke to Congress, receiving 29 standing ovations.

This week, Mr. Obama avoided proposals but promised that his administration would do its part to advance the process. He is sending Secretary of State John Kerry back to Israel from Jordan on Saturday to meet again with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas to discuss next steps.

The president’s new activism, on the second day of a four-day trip to the Middle East, came hours after rockets from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza hit southern Israel. He condemned the attacks, which broke a three-month cease-fire, but said that the Israelis should not use the violence as an excuse to avoid negotiations.

A two-state solution

“If we’re going to succeed, part of what we’re going to have to do is to get out of some of the formulas and habits that have blocked progress for so long," Mr. Obama said, as Mr. Abbas stood next to him somberly. “Both sides are going to have to think anew."

For his part, Mr. Abbas reiterated the Palestinian demand that Israel stop settlement construction. But he did not explicitly cite that as a precondition for entering into face-to-face talks with Mr. Netanyahu. Such talks have been quiescent since 2010.

“It is the duty of the Israeli government to at least halt the activity, so we can speak of the issues," Mr. Abbas said in Arabic, speaking through an interpreter. “The issue of settlements is clear: we never gave up our vision, whether now or previously."

There are signs that Mr. Abbas may be ready to return to negotiations with the Israelis. A draft copy of his talking points for the session with Mr. Obama, obtained by The New York Times, suggested that he was prepared to soften his long-held demand that Mr. Netanyahu publicly halt all building of settlements in favour of private assurances.

A senior administration official declined to discuss details of the meeting between Mr. Obama and Mr. Abbas.

Mr. Obama repeated his criticism of settlement projects, particularly in the strategically sensitive area of the West Bank known as E1. If the Israeli authorities go through with plans to develop that area, it will be “very difficult to square with a two-state solution," he said.

Still, Mr. Obama did not explicitly call for a halt to such development as a condition for peace talks to resume. The senior official said that while Mr. Obama would continue to discourage building in areas like E1, there were other measures both sides could take to smooth the way for face-to-face talks. He declined to be specific.

The rocket attacks, which hit the border town of Sderot, caused no injuries, but they offered another glimpse into hardened attitudes. “I’ve stood in Sderot, and met with children who simply want to grow up free from fear," Mr. Obama said. Mr. Abbas, stone-faced, said nothing.

In the president’s speech, which was broadcast live from the convention center and was widely viewed as the centrepiece of his first trip to Israel as president, he conceded that many Israelis had qualms about the Palestinians getting their own state.

Handling a heckler

“I recognise that there are those who are not simply sceptical about peace, but question its underlying premise," he said. “But it is important to be open and honest with one another."

“Politically, given the strong bipartisan support for Israel in America, the easiest thing for me to do would be to put this issue aside and express unconditional support for whatever Israel decides to do," Mr. Obama said to scattered laughter from an audience that clearly understood the dynamics of Washington.

But Mr. Obama said that seeking peace was not only in the finest traditions of Israel, it was also in the self-interest of a plucky country with a thriving high-tech economy that could turn itself into a powerhouse if it emerged from the isolation that has resulted from decades of conflict.

Echoing a theme he first articulated in his speech to the Muslim world in 2009, Mr. Obama said the Israeli occupation of the West Bank imposed a shameful human cost.

“Put yourself in their shoes — look at the world through their eyes," he said. “It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents, every single day."

“Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer," Mr. Obama said. “Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land."

With an early reference to a wildly popular Israeli television comedy, “Eretz Nehederet," Mr. Obama got a warm reception from his audience. But he was interrupted by a heckler, later identified as Rabiyah Aid, a 24-year-old Arab-Israeli student from Haifa, who was escorted out.

Mr. Aid, who was drowned out in boos, told reporters he was protesting “against the occupation and for the liberation of Palestine." The president turned the incident into a joke, saying, “We actually arranged for that because it made me feel at home."